Blogpost 3 Brazil-Netherlands Student Workshop Museum Management

During a two-day workshop in Rio de Janeiro on 10 and 11 August, four Brazilian and four Dutch students design together a brand new museum concept. The students present the results at the seminar Brazil-Netherlands Exchange on Managing Public Cultural Spaces on 12 August. The teaching staff consists of Giep Hagoort, professor emeritus Art & Economics at University Utrecht, and Rosane Carvalho, museologist and coordinator of the Museums Management MBA at Candido Mendes University in Rio. Both the workshop and the seminar are organized by FGV and DutchCulture.

August 10: the big start
Student Lisa: “Hard work began on the first workshop day! And that day started early, as we already were picked up at 8:00 am by Silvia Finguerut from FGV. She showed us how to use the metro and where to go the coming days. Every one of us had been so eager and excited about getting to know the Brazilian students and here we finally got to meet them!

Our workshop teachers proposed that all students formed duos and interviewed each other in order to draw and present a picture of the other person. This resulted in both funny and interesting portraits, by which the group got to know each other. After this introduction the teachers explained us what was expected from us and we formed groups for the two cases. Willemijn and Davey choose the ‘Art Museum From Scratch’ case, while Rick and myself worked on the ‘Sustainability’ case.

We were off to a good start. Working with the Brazilians was insightful. They had many good ideas and the ambiance during the collaboration was very ‘gezellig’ (Dutch for something like a good atmosphere)! And so was the trip after the workshop. We visited Oi Futuro in the neighborhood Flamengo, a cultural centre where they told us about their sustainability management. We ended the day with the whole group including caipirinhas, ´cervejas´ (beer) and ´pasteis com carne e queijo´ (pastry with meat and cheese).”